Pantry Vegetable and Pasta Soup

The other day I wanted soup again. Last week I made Kiersten’s Creamy Wild Rice & Mushroom Soup and it was sooo good! You need to make it. But this time I didn’t have all of the ingredients so I set off to my pantry to see what I did have. So hence the name pantry soup! Clean out the pantry and see what veggies I had in my fridge. I used fresh tomatoes because I didn’t have canned diced tomatoes.

And…I found potato flakes from Idahoan Foods in my pantry. When I went to Idaho last year, we visited the Idahoan Foods processing plant and saw that REAL potatoes goes into those potato flakes. And I swear I remember someone talking about thickening soups with it. Sooo I wanted to try it! And it came out beautifully…and I never told Curtis. Hehe

Get all of your veggies chopped up, your mise en place. It takes a little bit to chop everything up but so worth it to do it all ahead of time and I sort it out by the groupings/orderings I add it into the pot.

In my French oven, I heated the olive oil and then cooked the onions, celery and carrots for about 8 minutes.

Then I dropped in the tomatoes and garlic – this picture above is after cooking those down and then adding the parsley, oregano and beans.

I love pasta with just butter, pepper and parmesan cheese. I can eat it all day. So I thought I’d mix this up for the pasta that goes into the soup!

And this soup is so good as leftovers!

I had this for dinner with grilled caesar salad and bread…perfect! I love the complexity of flavor the potato flakes added to the soup. So good and when I make this again, I’ll probably sub out different veggies for what I have in my pantry! Hope this inspires you to use what you have in your pantry!

Directions:

Heat olive oil in your French oven or large stock pot on medium high heat for 2 minutes. Add carrots, celery, onions, salt and pepper and cook until softened, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add garlic and tomatoes and cook until tomatoes are broken down, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Add beans, 1 Tablespoon parsley and the oregano. Mix thoroughly with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon and then add chicken broth. Mix again and increase heat to high. Bring to boil and then add potato flakes (optional). Reduce heat and bring to a simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes.

While the soup is simmer, boil pasta but set the timer to about 2 minutes less than the instructions on the package. Drain pasta once it's done cooking and then add butter, pepper and parmesan cheese.

Serve soup with pasta and top with remaining pasta and parmesan cheese.

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75 comments

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This looks like my kind of soup! I never thought to put potato flakes in soup, but I have thickened baked potato soup with mashed potatoes, so it makes sense! yum, this one has been pinned and is on the menu for sometime really soon! 🙂

Looks delicious! I’m going to pin it and try it soon!

Pantry meals are one of my favorites! I bet this soup tasted delicious 🙂

Love recipes like this that use a little bit of everything you have on hand!! Unfortunately, I need a recipe because I completely suck at making up soups on my own. So…it’s basically a really good thing that you exist to figure it out for dummies like me 🙂

Oh I love this – so many veggies yet still delicious! And I’m always looking for more recipes to try out in my dutch oven and this sounds perfect for the cold wintery days ahead of me in NJ heehee.

This soup is so purty, Julie! And it looks delicious. I love soups and dishes that are kind of ‘pantry clearing’ in nature… I feel like I’m eating something delicious and keeping my kitchen cabinets fresh all at once!! 🙂

I love this! It’s nice sometimes not to follow a recipe and just use what you have on hand. And thanks for the mention too! 🙂

This is absolutely my favorite kind of soup. Somehow, what you have on hand always manages to work together. Interesting about thickening the soup with potato flakes. I’ve never used them for that but have found them to be a superb crust for pan-friend fish (that’s my mom’s tip!).

This looks like a fun recipe – I never knew you could use potato flakes to thicken up a soup. That’s a really great tip. I always mashed up white beans to thicken stuff. But I’m definitely going to have to try this out! Thanks!

I love hearty filling soups! I can’t do the Cesar salad (allergic to anchovies) unless someone knows of one with the flavor minus the lil fishies 😉

and the potato flakes added as a thickener – never would have ever thought to do that~ Thanks for the useful tip!

i’ve never added potato flakes to soup before… and I don’t know why! I think it’s fantastic, Julie. Such a wonderful idea to bring creaminess/flavor to the finished soup. you make vegetable soup look SO darn delicious – I want some for breakfast. 🙂

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Hi there, friend!!

Welcome to The Little Kitchen! I'm Julie and I love to cook, bake, eat and share (not necessarily in that order). I share easy recipes, stories about my family (which includes my pets) and my travels. And I actually have a little kitchen...